Unilt last month, I’d never been to an indoor water park and I’d never driven a Hyundai Tucson Hybrid. Between the two novel experiences, it was the Tucson Hybrid that I’m more anxious to repeat. I enjoy a good sports car as much as the next hack, but it’s more impressive to me if you can build a car that’s reasonably affordable and doesn’t feel like it’s making any compromises.
I grew up in a place that didn’t have indoor waterparks because it was just damn hot all the time, so if you wanted to enjoy a lazy river you had to make the effort to go outside. It turns out that outside is the correct place for a waterpark. Conceptually, I’m on board with the indoor waterpark. In practice, it feels like a casino designed by otters.
The idea of a hybrid compact crossover is something I’m aligned with, having purchased a Honda CR-V Hybrid in the last year. Do as I say and as I do. For no good reason, I hadn’t really considered a Hyundai Tucson Hybrid when I was looking. It was always going to be the RAV4 or the CR-V. Now that I’ve driven one for a week, I’m left wondering why I was so quick to dismiss the Hyundai.
[Full disclosure: Hyundai let me borrow one of these for a week and I managed to keep the white seats free from ice cream, which is an accomplishment given how much ice cream we had that week – MH.]
The Basics
Engine: 1.6-liter turbocharged inline-four.
Battery: 1.49 kWh lithium-ion.
Output: 231 combined horsepower, 258 combined lb-ft of torque.
Drive: All-wheel drive with a 47.7 kW electric motor and six-speed automatic.
Fuel Economy: 35 MPG city, 35 MPG highway, 35 MPG combined.
Body Style: Five-door compact SUV
Base Price: $35,415 including freight
Price As-Tested: $42,550 including freight
Why Does The Hyundai Tucson Hybrid Exist?
Hyundai is the rare automaker that has a comprehensive stable of cars in the various powertrains Americans sometimes require. There are ICE cars for the ICE crowd, the EVs for the people who want EVs, and hybrids for everyone else. The specific and long-term strategy of Hyundai seems to be: What if we made nothing but good cars people liked at reasonably affordable prices?
I know, it’s crazy.
The Tucson fits in here because it’s good, it’s in the most popular class of non-pickup trucks sold in America, and people seem to like it. Further aligning itself with Hyundai’s broader agenda, it also comes with a super-long warranty and is priced to be slightly cheaper than its competitors while offering more stuff.
It’s also Hyundai’s most important vehicle, outselling the next most popular offering (the Elantra) by almost two-to-one. No automaker can really afford to mess up in this segment, and Hyundai hasn’t.
How Does It Look?
When the sixth-generation Hyundai Sonata debuted, its style shifted in one model year from being a dull Accord knockoff to something that looked like no other car on the road. Hyundai called this “fluidic sculpture,” though I just called it “a lot.” As in: “That’s a lot of design on one car.”
The new Tucson proudly carries over the Hyundai tradition of trying to do as much as possible with the exterior bodywork. As this is the “refreshed” 2025 model, the headlights and bumpers are all a bit sharper, like on the new Santa Cruz. If you can immediately look at the Tucson and tell the difference between a 2024 and a 2025 MY, I’d be impressed.
Most notably, the daytime running lights (DRLs) are still stacked into the grille and above the actual headlights, creating an easily recognizable light signature at night. This trick goes back at least to the revised Jeep Cherokee, and it works well here, creating an illusion of a headlight where there isn’t one. In any view other than straight-on, the many body creases are the other unmissable feature. In particular, the little flare that cuts from the rear fender into the door is a dramatic choice.
Automakers have played it extremely safe when it comes to design in this class, with both the CR-V and RAV4 trying hard not to try too hard. Hyundai’s designers clearly said “screw restraint” and tried all of their ideas. I’m here for it.
What About The Interior?
Hyundai has evolved its interior philosophy a lot in one refresh, so much so that it might be the biggest reason to hold out for the 2025 car. The old version of the interior had a small rectangular screen for a gauge cluster with a larger one on the center console with a lot of touch capacitive buttons.
I, like all people of sense, prefer to use a dial to adjust my temperature. I also don’t like using touch-capacitive buttons for all the controls. It’s bad! The new version of the interior has a larger shared display that’s actually two screens built into one seamless experience. This looks better and works better. There are also real buttons and knobs for things you want to use.
It’s annoying I have to be excited about this, but I’m excited about this. Hyundai has evolved from one of my least favorite interiors to my favorite in the class in one year. At least in the Limited trim, the company has also scaled back the gloss piano black surfaces.
Where the Tucson Hybrid might lose out with some customers is its size, which is just a bit smaller than the new CR-V with a little less cargo space. It didn’t bother me and, frankly, the bigger the car the more crap I’m going to keep in it.
How Does It Drive?
I almost made my daughter puke. Unintentionally, of course.
My wife had a conference pop up the weekend of our trip, therefore it was just me and the kiddo at the indoor waterpark, which meant I wasn’t going to drink anything in case she broke a foot and I had to drive her to the hospital or whatever. I was the only parent who’d made this choice, it seemed. Oh well, my favorite part of a waterpark is the slides. I will ride waterslides all day.
My daughter will not. She doesn’t like waterslides. She wanted to sit in the outdoor hot tub as much as possible, keeping warm while the outside temperature dropped into the 40s. The other thing she wanted to do was something called Magic Quest, which is like the most dreary JRPG you can imagine brought to life in the lobby of a hotel. Phantasy Star III: The One Next To The Overpriced Italian Restaurant.
Most kids quit after the first hour. Not my kid. She’s a completionist. We did the whole damn thing. Her reward was a giant ice cream cone. I was so tired and so anxious to get home that I shoved her right into the car, forgetting that dairy + car has to tendency to make her car sick. As the trip was mostly on interstates, I wasn’t worried.
Up to this point, the hybrid system blended into the background. My Honda uses a two-motor system with one acting as a generator/starter and the other powering the vehicle below a certain speed. The Tucson Hybrid, uniquely, doesn’t have an “eCVT” and instead uses an actual six-speed transmission with direct mechanical linkage to the wheels. This means you can lock the center differential, which is fairly unique for a hybrid (it was dry the entire time I had it, and I stayed on the road, so I never tested this feature).
The upside to this system is that it drives more like a regular car than any other hybrid I’ve experienced. The downside is that mileage is a little worse than the competition, coming in at 35/35/35. In almost 300 miles of driving, I got… 35 MPG. At least it’s accurate.
And then we hit the detour, which took us up and over a small mountain in the Poconos. Being a little smaller and, perhaps because of the transmission, the Hyundai felt better on curvy roads. As with all things Hyundai, the steering has improved dramatically in the last decade, going from last to first. I was having a great time in this detour until my daughter let out the dreaded “You better stop.”
Oops.
Does It Have The Electronic Crap I Want?
In the Limited trim, you get all the things. There’s a wireless charging pad that kind of works, wireless CarPlay/Android Auto, heated-and-ventilated seats, and USB ports galore. There’s also the company’s smart cruise control, which now uses an infrared camera to make sure you’re paying attention when it’s in use. It’s not great, but it’s not terrible. As with the plug-in version that Thomas drove last year, the Bose sound system is entirely up to the job of playing a podcast.
Does It Fulfill Its Purpose?
Up to this point, I’d sort of accepted that buying a hybrid meant dealing with a driving experience not quite the same as other cars. Perhaps it’s just familiarity, but even in a two-row, non-premium crossover, the old cars feel a little better. A lot of this comes down to transmission choice and, in particular, how the wide adoption of CVTs has harmed the driving experience. The hybrid versions of the RAV4 and CR-V do a lot to solve the problem of CVTs, but the Tucson Hybrid makes you forget the problem even existed.
This makes me wonder why all of these cars aren’t hybrid. They’re a little more expensive, sure, but the price differential between hybrids and non-hybrids is coming down. More importantly, the performance and power of this car are superior to any other non-hybrid car in this class that I’ve driven, including the Subaru Forester.
[Ed note: If you’re really looking to drop the hammer, look into a Mazda CX-5 Turbo. That thing freakin’ flies rolling into third gear from 50 mph, and the steering’s even better than in the Tucson. Fuel economy’s not great, though. –TH]
If this is the kind of car you want, you have all the choices in the world. Test drive everything you can and then come to your own conclusions. But if you want some advice from me and, hell, you’re reading this review so I assume you do:
- Don’t buy the dining package ahead of time at the indoor waterpark unless you need to consume 50,000 calories for breakfast.
- Test drive the Hyundai, and if you like it, definitely get the hybrid version.
Also, make reservations for dinner early. The only thing worse than overpriced Italian food is overpriced Italian food you have to wait for.
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